Exploring the art of knitting in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Whirlwind

Last weekend, participating knitters willingly crawled from LYS to LYS in Rhode Island to experience the Great Rhody Yarn Crawl, and I hope they had a great time. Restrained by my superego, I visited only one emporium, Eneri Knits in Exeter, on Friday afternoon, wedging myself between appearances by the magical weaver and fiber artist Jan Doyle and local author Ann Hood, whose writing about knitting has earned her high praise well beyond New England.

Those of you who recall my post last summer about Eneri Knits, know that the shop is a new venture for Irene DeVerna, and of special interest to me. I think of yarn shops as much more than places to buy yarn and knitting accessories. The best of them fulfill an educational and social mission, and they have distinctive character, like any person or friend. At any rate, it's been fascinating for me to see how Eneri Knits is evolving, and I was able to sit down for a few minutes and chat with Irene about what's been going on in the past nine or so months. I'll devote a future post to this because there's a lot to say. However, since my last visit the inventory has grown impressively, and the positive energy has amplified.

Even though I was at Eneri towards the end of the day, there was a steady stream of people coming in to browse, chat, and buy. Irene told me that it had been like this all day--customers were even waiting outside the door before she opened at 10 a.m.! The next day was, in Irene's words, "fantastic! Saturday was so crowded in the shop, that my husband had to escape to the Celestial Café [next door] to get some air!"

It seems that a fine yarn tradition has been inaugurated--the Slater Mill Guild is planning another such weekend next year.

2 comments:

Slater mill did not organize the crawl, they were just sponsors. To put praise where it is due it was organized by three lively girls Tracy, Bernadette and Chrystee who gave up all of their time and I'm sure money, for free. I bumped into Tracy yesterday and the girls are still working hard collecting up food donations fromall the stores! Thanks ladies for a fabu weekend.

I think the crawl was wonderful. I've been to two others and this one by far was over the top. I know there's a lot of work involved, but I hope there's another one next year. The three ladies that organized it deserve many, many, thanks.